Hamas builds military tunnels, not bomb shelters

In the past few days, the Israel Defense Forces have discovered and destroyed at least 20 tunnels in the Gaza strip. These tunnels do not serve a humanitarian purpose; on the contrary, they are built with the sole intention of causing civilian casualties on the Israeli side of the border.

Those who have been making a case for the disproportionality in the conflict should be asking why Hamas is building these tunnels instead of building bomb shelters to protect civilian lives.

The number of civilian casualties has been brought up on every major news story in the past two weeks, and while every civilian death on both sides is regrettable, the number of Israel civilian casualties would be much higher if Israelis didn't spend the time and money to build shelters.

To build a tunnel, concrete, personnel and money are needed. These are the same requirements to build shelters for civilians.

Since 2007, when rockets began raining from Gaza into the southern towns in Israel, the Israeli government has funded hundreds of bomb shelters across Israel to protect the lives of innocent civilians.

If Hamas is not willing to negotiate a cease-fire, maybe it needs to stop digging tunnels and start building shelters.